[faithhopecharity]

Texas will probably get this.
but the mystery remains...just what useful, productive, profitable work could 50,000 new office clerk types perform to make hiring them all of a sudden worthwhile?

and...especially since the company refers to the entire scheme as redundant to its existing bloated HQ

there is something else going on here, other than just duplicating a big HQ operation... what successful corporation has duplicate Headquarters of this size, anyway? what if clerk 12,657 in Seattle says YES and clerk 47, 974 in Dallas, say, says NO?

instead of making Amazon more profitable, it will drain Amazons financial resources and screw up Amazon’s daily operations big=time

so....Bezos not being THAT stupid, just what (else) is he up to with this very stange proposal? Just what will his new 50,000 paperpushers actaully DO?

[freedumb2003]

Accounting, Payroll, Human Resources, internal tech support, internal logistics, etc. etc. etc.

To some degree a 50K workforce requires its own back office support.

I know what you mean though. When you are working with huge multinationals like I do, sometimes you will look at a huge building or campuses and ask “what do all these people DO?” even when you are on your way to meet with some of the people that DO these things.

[Responsibility2nd]

I suspect Bezos is shopping for whichever city gives him enough tax credits, incentives, and other corporate welfare freebies.

Then - as usual - taxpayers will get screwed.

[jonrick46]

With all the problems in Seattle, Amazon may be thinking of establishing the second headquarters as a staging place to pull out of Seattle. The greedy tax to the max Seattle Democrats are now proposing a head tax on employees. Amazon is their target. Imagine the cost of paying a $100/employee tax every year. Amazon had better hurry. The wolf is at their door.

[ctdonath2]

Amazon is expecting continued massive growth. They're looking at scale so large that UPS/FedEx/USPS/etc won't - can't - keep up. They're growing, and brick-and-mortar shops are suffering; that means a lot more brain-work to make it all happen.

And they're not the only one. Local Walmart is installing something to take shopping to the next level:

[LostPassword]

> there is something else going on here, other than just duplicating a big HQ operation

It lets them shut down the other HQ when Seattle decides to go full-Bernie.

Rich liberals only want the government to take other people’s money.

[discostu]

Given that Amazon generally hits at least one acquisition a quarter (with a staggering 9 this year, and we ain’t done with this year yet), I’d say the most obvious thing would be to start doing all the acquisitions through the new office. They’d still get some direction from main but let the day to day stuff go through the new. Or they might slide “non-core” to the new place and leave “real Amazon” (with whatever acquisitions fall under that umbrella) in the old place. There’s lots of ways to divvy up management in a large company.

And remember the 50,000 number is “possible growth to”, it’s not going to open with 50,000 people.

[Vince Ferrer]

there is something else going on here

Amazon is looking to expand into becoming a mega logistics company like UPS, but bigger.

[txnativegop]

they will all be liberal activist hacks.

[tbw2]

Set up second headquarters. Move/relocate staff. Claim it is your official headquarters. Dramatically reduce taxes.